XVIII. Places of public resort being thus provided for, our repair thither is especially for mutual conference, and as it were commerce to be had between God and us.
Because therefore want of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity amongst men1, as contrariwise the very ground of all our happiness, and the seed of whatsoever perfect virtue groweth from us, is a right opinion touching things divine; this kind of knowledge we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth unto his people, and our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands for the first of those religious offices wherewith we publicly honour him on earth. For the instruction therefore of all sorts of men to eternal life it is necessary, that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto them. Which open publication of heavenly mysteries, is by an excellency termed Preaching. For otherwise there is not any thing publicly notified, but we may in that respect, rightly and properly say it is “preached2.” So that when the school of God doth use it as a word of art, we are accordingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as that school is accustomed to publish.
We find not in the world any people that have lived altogether without religion. And yet this duty of religion, which provideth that publicly all sorts of men may be instructed in the fear of God, is to the Church of God and hath been always so peculiar, that none of the heathens, how curious soever in searching out all kinds of outward ceremonies like to ours3, could ever once so much as endeavour to resemble herein the Church’s care for the endless good of her children4.
Ways of teaching there have been sundry always usual in God’s Church. For the first introduction of youth to the knowledge of God, the Jews even till this day have their Catechisms5. With religion it fareth as with other sciences. The first delivery of the elements thereof must, for like consideration6, be framed according to the weak and slender capacity of young beginners: unto which manner of teaching principles in Christianity, the Apostle in the sixth to the Hebrews is himself understood to allude. For this cause therefore, as the Decalogue of Moses declareth summarily those things which we ought to do; the prayer of our Lord whatsoever we should request or desire: so either by the Apostles7, or at the leastwise out of their writings, we have the substance of Christian belief compendiously drawn into few and short articles, to the end that the weakness of no man’s wit might either hinder altogether the knowledge, or excuse the utter ignorance of needful things.
Such as were trained up in these rudiments, and were so made fit to be afterwards by Baptism received into the Church, the Fathers usually in their writings do term Hearers8, as having no farther communion or fellowship with the Church than only this, that they were admitted to hear the principles of Christian faith made plain unto them.
Catechising may be in schools, it may be in private families. But when we make it a kind of preaching, we mean always the public performance thereof in the open hearing of men, because things are preached not in that they are taught, but in that they are published.
← Their pretence that would have Churches utte · Contents · Of preaching, by reading publicly the books →
Footnotes
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Moses Ægypt. (i.e. Maimonides, born in Cordova, 1139, lived in Egypt † 1209 at Tiberias. Biog. Univ.) in Mor. Hannebuch. lib. iii. cap. 12. [11.] “Contraria fortia, in quibus homines sibi invicem opponantur [contradicunt invicem] secundum exercitia et desideria et opiniones, omnia proveniunt ex ignorantia: sicut cæcus ex privatione sui visus vagatur ubique et læditur. Scientia veritatis tollit hominum inimicitiam et odium. Hoc promisit sancta Theologia dicens, Habitabit agnus cum lupo. Et assignat rationem, Repleta est terra sapientia Domini.” [Hooker appears to quote from the translation by Aug. Justiniani, Almoner to Francis I. Paris, 1520. It may be worth while to add Buxtorf’s version of the first sentence. “Mala ista, quæ inter homines inter se invicemincidunt, ex diversis nempe illorum studiis, voluntatibus, affectibus, sententiis et opinionibus; illa inquam mala omnia quoque privationem consequuntur. Proveniunt enim cuncta ex Ignorantia, h. e. ex privatione sapientiæ.”] ↩
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Luc. viii. 39. xii. 3. [In which places the Geneva Bible has “preached,” instead of “published” and “proclaimed.”] ↩
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Vide Tertull. de Præscr. advers. Hær. [c. 40. “Diabolus … ipsas quoque res sacramentorum divinorum in idolorum mysteriis æmulatur. Tingit et ipse quosdam, utique credentes et fideles suos: expositionem delictorum de lavacro repromittit: et si adhuc memini, Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suos; celebrat et panis oblationem,” &c.] ↩
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[Except perhaps under Julian: see Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. t. i. 101. D.] ↩
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The Jews’ Catechism, called Lekach Tob. [Or, “The Book of good Doctrine;” (alluding to Prov. iv. 2.) Venice, 1595. The author was Rabbi Abraham Ben Hananiah Jaghel, of Montfelice near Padua. It appears to be the work of an elegant and pious mind: containing an account of the thirteen articles of the Jewish faith, and many moral and devout precepts, lucidly arranged in a dialogue between a Rabbin and his disciple. It is satisfactory to know that the writer became afterwards a Christian. Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin. i. 26. The tract was reedited with a Latin version by De Veil, 12mo. Lond. 1679, and inserted by Carpzoff in his Introduction to Theology, prefixed to Martini’s Pugio Fidei, p. 42, Lips. 1687. Comp. Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. i. 78. note (a). “Paucissimos habent Judæi hujus generis libros, præ cæteris tamen isto utuntur.”] ↩
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“Incipientibus brevius ac simplicius tradi præcepta magis convenit. Aut enim difficultate institutionis tam numerosæ atque perplexæ deterreri solent, aut eo tempore, quo præcipue alenda ingenia atque indulgentia quadam enutrienda sunt, asperiorum rerum tractatu atteruntur.” Fab. [Quintil.] lib. viii. proœm. “Incipientibus nobis exponere jura populi Romani, ita videntur posse tradi commodissime, si primo levi ac simplici via, post deinde diligentissima atque exactissima interpretatione singula tradantur. Alioqui si statim ab initio rudem adhuc et infirmum animum studiosi multitudine ac varietate rerum oneraverimus, duorum alterum, aut desertorem studiorum efficiemus, aut cum magno labore ejus, sæpe etiam cum diffidentia (quæ plerumque juvenes avertit) serius ad id perducemus ad quod leviore via ductus sine magno labore et sine ulla diffidentia maturius perduci potuisset.” Institut. Imper. (Justiniani) lib. i. tit. 1. ↩
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Vide Ruff. in Symb. [p. 17. ad calc. Cypr. ed. Fell. “Tradunt majores nostri quod post ascensionem Domini, cum per adventum Sancti Spiritus super singulos quosque Apostolos igneæ linguæ sedissent; … . præceptum eis a Domino datum, ob prædicandum Dei verbum, ad singulas quemque proficisci nationes. Discessuri itaque ad invicem normam prius futuræ sibi prædicationis in commune constituunt … . Omnes ergo in unum positi, et Spiritu Sancto repleti, breve istud futuræ sibi, ut diximus, prædicationis indicium, conferendo in unum quod sentiebat unusquisque, componunt, atque hanc credentibus dandam esse regulam statuunt … . . Hæc non scribi chartulis atque membranis, sed retineri cordibus tradiderunt, ut certum esset, neminem hæc ex lectione, quæ interdum pervenire etiam ad infideles solet, sed ex Apostolorum traditione dicisse.”] ↩
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Tertull. de Pœnitent. [c. 6.] “An alius est tinctis Christus, alius audientibus? Audientes optare intinctionem, non præsumere, oportet.” Cyprian. Epist. xvii. lib. 3. [t. ii. 41. ed. Fell.] “Audientibus vigilantia vestra non desit.” Rupert. (Abbot of Deutz, = Tuitium, † 1135.) de Divin. Offic. lib. iv. cap. 18. [In Auct. Bibl. Patr. Colon. i. 927.] “Audiens quisque regulam fidei, Catechumenus dicitur. Catechumenus namque Auditor interpretatur.” ↩